Property Hub - Investment Insights & Inspiration - Realty Talk: 2022’s Capital City Rising Stars

Episode Date: December 17, 2021

Following a once in 30-year property boom across the country this year, where will the capital city opportunities be in 2022? Money expert Effie Zahos and property analyst Terry Ryder join us again in part 2 of our special series to reveal their upcoming areas from Canstar’s recent Rising Stars report.  RealtyTalk is your trusted voice in property investment and Australia’s most popular online property show.   RealtyTalk is brought to you by Realty, Australia’s leading search and social property distribution platform that helps investors like you beat the crowd, giving you the earliest access to property opportunities, listings, and insights. Check out Realty. RealtyTalk is hosted by top property investment expert, author, and founder of KnowHow Property, Bushy Martin. Find out how Bushy’s KnowHow team helps investors unlock freedom with finance and property here, and check out Bushy’s podcast Get Invested.  RealtyTalk is supported by BMT, a company that helps property investors save thousands of dollars each year by maximizing tax deductions from investment properties. Find out more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to Realty Uncut. Our daily shows are powered by CoreLogic and supported by Printforce and Realty.com.au. Hello and welcome to the show. Welcome, in fact, to our last show for 2021 and the first one for 2022. I'm delighted to say that our guest is a highly respected international digital and real estate leader. Steve Carroll keeps himself at the very cutting edge of digital trends, which has seen him visit and liaise with some of the top tech giants in the United States, including Google, LinkedIn and Facebook. And he's regularly called upon as a guest speaker on digital innovation, on sales and, of course, on leadership. Steve is considered a preeminent authority on digital trends, but it's not about digital trends that we'll be catching up with Steve about in this week's show. It's about another one of his passions, one that I have to say he's been very, very successful at involving a large section of the Australian property industry already. And now he's out to increase that substantially.

At Realty Uncut, we're very proud to support Steve with this project, and he's going to join us today to explain what it's all about, how you can get involved, and to introduce two remarkable people who are on this journey with him. Steve Carroll joins me in just a moment. Property deductions can save you thousands of dollars each year. To make sure you maximise deductions, you need to work with the most experienced quantity surveyor in the country. BMT Tax Depreciation is the leading specialist in the industry. They've completed over 700,000 tax deduction schedules for residential investment and commercial properties Australia-wide.

BMT guarantee to find double your fee in the first full financial year deductions. Call BMT on 1300 728 726 today for an obligation free quote. Welcome back and welcome to the show, Steve. Nice to have your company and good to see you again. Yeah, great to be here, Kevin. We're going to talk a lot about the charity and the charity is called Hands Across the Water. We'll talk a lot more about that in just a moment. But just to put it in context for me, Steve, if you could just just talk about the synergy that you see with the property industry and how it relates to Hands Across the Water. yeah absolutely kevin well my grandma used to say there's no place like home and i think we

we all agree especially as we uh head towards the festive season that um you know there's nothing better than having a home with the family but across the world there's many many families and many many kids who don't have that luxury and uh hands across the water are a charity that uh give to many many children's living over in Thailand and you know Peter and Claire Baines who you're going to meet very shortly once challenged me to say well look you know the real estate industry are experts at finding people a home they're experts at helping people build a future so can't you pull them together and can't we do something special to help people that are less fortunate. And that's the synergy, Kevin. Yeah, you're a very passionate person, Steve,

and we're very pleased to support you in this. Now, you're going to tell us in just a moment before the end of the show exactly how we as an industry can become involved in helping you raise money four hands across the water. But before we do that, I'd just love you to introduce your two guests and just give us a bit of a background as to why they're on this journey with you and how they fit into the scene, Steve? Yes, certainly. Well, Peter and Claire I've known for many, many years. I worked with Claire for a number of years at REA

and met Peter through that connection. Let me start off with Claire. Claire is one of the most beautiful human beings that you'll meet. She devotes so much of her time to help others and she's a real, real giver. And I think you'll enjoy talking to Claire in a few moments. Peter is an incredibly interesting man. He led the Australian response team and went over to Bali after the terrible terrorist attacks in the early 2000s. And his job in the capacity of being a leader was to obviously try and create some stability in all of this chaos and make sure that those injured Australians returned home.

And those Australians that were sadly killed will return safely to their families. And Peter's story doesn't end there because after the Boxing Day tsunami, Peter again led the response, went to Thailand and helped, I suppose, again, try and create a level of normality amidst incredible chaos and tragedy. and I've listened to Peter over the years and obviously in the role that I've done at REA and News Corp, I've been blessed to listen to many, many speakers. There's not many more inspiring speakers than Peter Baines. I think you'll enjoy his company, Kevin. Well said. Very good, Steve. And welcome, Claire and Peter. It's such a pleasure to have you on the show. And I guess it's unique in that we've got you both in the same spot at the same time. yeah good morning kevin and uh great to join you yeah thanks for having us on the show

oh it's a pleasure claire i look forward to talking to both of you peter we'll start with you if we could that experience that um that steve mentioned there in his introduction to you must have given you a huge amount of takeaway in terms of you know working in a crisis situation um nothing more critical in the areas that you were working in what lessons have you learned from that that you've been able to bring back into business management, I guess. Any stories you can relate for us? Yeah, certainly, Kevin.

One of the things I say about working in crisis is it's just the critical testing ground for leadership and many of the challenges that leaders face regardless of the area that they work. And, of course, we're talking the real estate industry today today is that their challenges in leading people and making tough decisions is no different than what we were facing and the structure that we were building, either in Thailand or Bali or Saudi Arabia or any of the international areas I've worked. It's just the context remains the

same, but the actual challenge is different. And I think about many of the lessons that I took from my time working in in these areas and and I guess if I can just relate one of them to you this morning and and it's really about making tough decisions and and and having the courage to make those because as business leaders our day is filled with making difficult decisions be that on a personal or business level and I think the more senior people are in the position the tougher the decisions that they face are and i share the story of this little fellow on the screen now and he was in the race of his life or to be more accurate it was a race for his life and he held the hand of his grandfather and they were running from that wall of water that was the

tsunami now in front of them was a building and it was 50 meters away and if they could get to that building they knew that that gave them their best chance of survival but they also knew they were never going to be able to outrun this wall of water which was upon them so granddad got to a tree and he climbed the tree and he dragged this little superhero to the top of the tree with him now they made it to the top of the tree they were cut they were bleeding and they had abrasions all over them but they had survived. Yet there was no wild celebrations at the top of the tree because when granddad was running he had this little guy in his right hand and in his left hand he had his younger brother. Now when granddad got to the base of the tree he knew that if he

didn't survive none of them would. He also knew he couldn't climb the tree hanging on to both of his grandchildren so he had a decision to make which one of his grandkids would he take up the tree and which one would he let go of oh my goodness and how do you make that decision how do you decide who lives and who dies he let go of this little guy's brother he was washed away and he did die and every day since granddad was faced with with this reflection on the decision that he made but I think this is the important thing and the question he asked himself was could he have run faster could he have been stronger could he have made a different decision but the thing is he made a difficult decision and that for me is what leadership's about and there'll be many

people sitting or listening to this and who will be faced with you know significant decisions in their personal and business life and some will lay awake for nights on end thinking is what I'm about to do the right thing they'll make that decision they'll spend another number of countless nights awake thinking is what I've done the right thing but as I say I think that the real test of leadership is the ability to make those critical decisions and live with the outcome so I think Kevin when I think about my time in Thailand in these different international areas it's probably that one story that captures for me the difficulty that sits with leaders. That's I don't know what to say after that that's such an incredible story Steve you've obviously heard that before

the impact of that story it's a very powerful message isn't it? Absolutely and you know just to echo what peter just said decision decision making is part and parcel of being a leader and and often and i think i probably stole this from peter uh who who said you know actually making a wrong decision is better than making no decision because at least if you make a decision it might be wrong but at least you're moving in a direction but if you make no decision you just create absolute confusion yeah i mean i i guess there must have been so many other stories too or lessons peter that you've learned along the way i mean we heard from steve there at the the opening about how many experiences you've had there must have been fairly harrowing

yeah absolutely it was you know i arrived into to thailand and and of course we knew um what we're flying into having uh spent uh uh that time in bali as steve mentioned but you know although my my working career was filled with death and destruction i flew in a helicopter up to a place called uh um bantham nam chai and uh arrived at this community of what Yanyao was a temple and as we came into land I could smell the death and it's a it's an unmistakable smell and I arrived at the temple and walked in and all I could see covering the ground was the decomposing bodies of three and a half thousand people and it was our job to identify these decomposing bodies because they're someone's brother or mother

son or daughter and and return them home and and I think at the time that I spent there a lady that stands out for me is is a Thai lady who who had lost her her son and our role was to return the bodies once they'd been identified either to the foreign police who would return them to that country or to the Thai families and this lady had driven six hours from the north of Thailand to collect the body of her son and she came from an incredibly modest family in that she couldn't afford a coffin and we'd been caught by this once before where we had to give a loved one back in a body bag and Kevin it doesn't matter who you are no one deserves to receive the body of their child in a body bag so to stop that happening we went out and purchased some coffins ourselves to

to have them on the ready and this lady arrived and we gave her the body of her son and we gave her a coffin now she had to be at the lowest point of her life and but all she could do was thank us for the work that we'd done that made me feel incredibly bad she had more grace more compassion than anyone i've ever met but given the world's not necessarily a fair place and for some it can be quite cruel because this beautiful lady didn't make that 12-hour journey just once she didn't come twice but three times she came to our site to collect the three bodies of her children and she kept coming until she had no more family left and each time i saw her she had that same level of grace dignity and compassion and made me feel incredibly bad

every day but there was nothing that we could do but the you know certainly the lesson I took out of that was that we should all at every opportunity take enjoy what we do or change what we do because we only get one go. Peter, they're incredible stories. And for Peter and Claire, for both of you to be going through these experiences is really quite incredible. Claire, if I can come to you,

because Steve mentioned at the outset that you've known each other for quite some time going back to the REA days. What is it that drove you to become involved in this? because I understand you had, you know, quite a big job at REA and you elected to give it up and go into this full-time. What drove that, Claire? Why?

Yeah, look, I've always, you know, growing up and well into my 20s, I was always very much about giving back to others and wanting to help. And it was actually through the work that I did, I bumped into Peter on the speaker circuit and it was actually that story of the grandfather that that sparked something in me to to wanting to do something more and and it was um it was I think 2010 I heard that story and and within a month I'd signed up to the fundraising bike rides

that he does and um you know just with that that determination to go over and and meet the kids and and try and do what I could to support those kids so um so it dates back about 11 years fast forward to 2015 when I left REA and and I think I just arrived at a point in my career where I enjoyed the work that I was doing through Hands Across the Water and I just wanted to do more of it so I could see the the tangible difference that we were making you know we were we were doing incredible experiences with our bike rides and I just loved it's that whole enjoy what you do um and love what you do so so that was my journey out of corporate and into a full-time with hands wonderful steve we'll hear from you in just a moment because we i think most people

in the industry know about the bike rides although i haven't been on one myself i'm an avid bike rider and maybe sometime in the future who knows but um there is another initiative that we're going to talk about in just a moment but steve just before we do that i just wanted to ask Peter, one more question. Peter, that is about COVID. It's been difficult for everyone, I guess, in business to both communicate and operate a business. How difficult has it been for you to continue to fundraise during COVID? I mean, you've got so many initiatives on the go that you've got to continually fuel financially. Has it been hard for you? Yeah, it's certainly an understatement to say it's been hard it's been the most difficult two years uh since we've uh well since i started

hands and the biggest challenge that we faced is that we've built hands on creating memorable shared experiences so giving people an opportunity and value back rather than just soliciting donations so when all of our bike rides and all of our initiatives were shut down we lost over 70 percent of our income last year and we thought that it couldn't be worse this year but it was and you know I think real success for us and and it's a difficult thing to measure when you all you do is cancel events and you're losing but the real success for us is that at the end of 2021 there's been no compromise on the level of care we still fund the 20 kids through scholarships in university we have 350 kids all the seven homes remain open and and whilst it's

been incredibly difficult for the side of the business that claire runs it's uh i think it's a it's a it's a true measure of success that we're still still around and next year we'll come out and hopefully return or start the journey to back where we used to be claire i'll come to you in a moment. I just want to ask you, you know, what this means to the kids. But we'll come to that in a moment. First off, Steve, I just want to find out from you how we can help. What is it the new initiative all about? Yeah, Kevin, if it's right with you, before I just answer that question, I'm just going to show a slide, get Peter to talk it through, of a young girl called Jip because this is for me a really powerful story a very motivating story as well and Peter

maybe I can just throw back to you and you can talk through the picture of Jip that we've got up on the screen at the moment. Yeah sure thanks Steve and you know Kevin I think that the reason that it makes sense to talk about the young girl Jip now is that you know when we measure our success and what we've done we have these seven centres we have all of these kids and you know with Steve and Digital Live and the real estate industry first through Jealous Craig we built a home for kids down at a place called Chantanaburi then we opened a digital learning centre up in Yossaton and sometimes we can get caught up in these big projects but as you'll see from this photo of jip she's 14 years old and she came to us in may of this year she is incredibly sick

she has hiv she has tuberculosis and you can see from the frailty of her body that i don't think it's an exaggeration to say that her life was limited unless there was intervention and the really concerning thing for me is just the physical state of her and the fact that she was living with her family and they allowed her to get to this state where she's got festering sores all over her and in such a terrible physical condition but the upside is this second photo that i'll show you now of her and just what a remarkable turnaround it's been within that short five months you can see that she's received the medicine she received the health care but importantly she received the love that was missing and there's been a dramatic physical

turnaround of her and up until 2010 a HIV home that we support now kids were dying on a regular basis and kids like jip sadly would have died and the lady that we work with up there has buried 1027 children in her long many decade life of running that home well the important thing is that when hands got involved in 2011 we started providing access to all of the kids to all of the medicine all of the health care they needed and something remarkable happened kevin the kids stopped dying and that's that's the way it should be because hiv is no longer a medical problem it's just one of poverty and when you provide access you can do you know amazing things and we can't help everyone but we can all help someone so thanks steve it's a it's a good reminder of the work that we do

and the change we can bring about on individual kids. Yeah, well said, Pete. Steve, how can we help, mate? Well, we've got a Zoomathon happening on the 23rd and 24th of February. So it was an initiative that Samantha McLean from Elite Agent and I came up with after we'd had a couple of glasses of red wine. And we thought, how can we get the industry, this big powerful industry to unite and do something really spectacular fun and and caring

in in 2022 because let's be honest with you 21 and 20 have been um not the greatest of years and we came up with this concept of running a 24 hour zoomathon where we'd have 24 real estate leaders looking after 60 minutes and it would be a little bit like pass a parcel so what ray white would own 60 minutes they would then they would have three or four guests so a bit like a radio interview for for 60 they would then pass it over to lj hooker and we'd go uh for 24 hours and set a world record now 24 is now 33 because the response from the industry has been phenomenal and um and not only have we got 33 uh incredible uh hosts but each of those hosts are responsible for bringing two or three guests so we've got about a hundred voices that will share a wealth

of knowledge and learning over a 33 hour period and uh we're going to put up a link which i think is going to go up on the screen now uh where people can buy a ticket for 49 dollars and for that $49 you can tune in you can tune out uh no different to when Bob Geldof did Live Aid you just tuned in and listened to your favorite bands and when there was a band that you weren't interested in you tuned out and um and we'll be we'll be giving everybody who buys a ticket for $49 the full recording which they'll then be able to listen to uh for the rest of 2022 so amazing value $49. You can buy your ticket through the link that's on the screen now. And I can guarantee this, Kevin, every single dollar, that $49, every single dollar will go to the children that are

supported by Hands Across the Water. Okay, well, there's a link down below in the description to take you to that website. I encourage you to get on board. $49 and 33 hours of just, well, I've seen the guest list. The speakers are stellar and there'll be so much take-home value too. And great that you'll be able to get a recorded copy at the end of that. What's the goal, Steve, in terms of how much you'd like to raise? Well, we've set a target of $150,000 from this particular initiative. We've also got our first bike ride, real estate industry bike ride, in August. I think we've got 20-odd riders already registered for that.

So we'll be looking to make another $150,000, $200,000 from that bike ride. So the goal is Zoomathon, bike ride, north of $300,000. And that'll go a long way to helping Claire, Peter, and everybody else involved with Hands Across the Water. And Kevin, if I could just make this point. You know, often the real estate industry, you know, it cops a fair share of criticism, you know, through various people who have had bad experiences. But you know what? My experience of the real estate industry is many, many, many people have got hearts of gold. And once you can get them on the journey, there's no stopping. And it's been great uniting the industry, working with Peter and Claire and Kevin.

It's great being able to share some of what we're up to with you this morning. Yeah, wonderful. And I guess just to support what you just said, Steve, just look at the number of people who've given freely of their time to be involved in this initiative. 33 of them are bringing along three guests each. So that's a lot of people who are supporting you. no one's putting their hand out for any payment no more should they um but uh you know full full credit uh claire could i just ask you uh before we finish off we're talking here about a quarter of a million maybe three hundred thousand dollars raised what's that going to mean to the kids

um yeah look kevin it's we we talk about different parts of where our funding goes and and pete mentioned before there's the there's the bigger projects but it's also you know the simple things like housing food shelter love it's you know there's that part of it there's also creating education and future pathways for the kids um so one of the mantras that we live by is that every child in our home deserves to live the life of choice uh and so by providing them with access to that education that gives them that choice when it's time to leave the home and and i guess the third part of it as well is you know when we talk about um children like jip and so jip now lives in our home she's getting the love care support that she needs but there will be ongoing

costs from a counselling and support perspective and um you know group therapy and and different areas and and funds that will need to be um put into getting her mental health right um so you know while it physically she looks fantastic there's a long way for us to go to get her to um to a thriving young woman. So the $300,000 will have a huge impact on all of the 350 kids that we've got. It's been wonderful talking to you and thank you so much for spending some time with us.

I wish you every success in what you're doing. And Steve, I just wanted to thank you for introducing Claire and Peter to us and giving us the time to come onto the show to explain it. I mean, it's a wonderful opportunity for the industry. the links are below in the description we'll bring up that website again now on the screen for you to jump in and buy your ticket 49 and it gives you access to the zoomathon which is on i think you said 23rd and 24th of yep kicks off uh in the morning of the 23rd and finishes on the 24th

and the great thing about the zoomathon kevin um when australia goes to bed that night the the baton will be carried by international real estate leaders we've got leaders from the UK from Asia from the United States from New Zealand and so the Zoomathon is very much driven by the Australian real estate industry but with the help of some of our mates overseas. Yeah wonderful initiative Steve congratulations to you and Samantha on you know on a great initiative I wish you well we're we're delighted to be able to support you in this and anything we can do to help um you know just reach out and we're more than happy to do it peter and claire all the best and thank you so much for giving us your time today and thank you to you too steve thank you

thanks so much realty uncut is part of the realty media group and is powered by core logic and print force see all our shows realty talk the property show realty uncut and auction update at realty.com.au The home of property.